Stack         | 
CK  ANNEXj 

500 


"WORDS   IN   SEASON 


RABBI    ABRAHAM    J.   FELDMAN 


ADDRESSES  AT  INSTALLATION 

AMERICANIZATION— TRUE  AND  FALSE 

WHAT  IS  WRONG  WITH  RELIGION? 

RELIGION  SOCIALIZED 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

OSCAR    KLONOWER 

1920 


.Stack 
Annex 


5  (TO 

aw 


Go  tbe  JSlesseO  /fcemorB  of 

flD$  father 

TKIlboee  Ceachltuiss  are  IReflecteD 

anO 
TKHbose  Mopes  are 

in  tbeae  paged 
Dedicate  tbis  Collection  of 
in  Xove,  <3ratitu&e  anD  "Reverence 


5008088 


SERIES  XXXI11.  No.   15. 

hg  Sabbt  Sou.  SCrauakopf,  ®  JL 


AT  THE  INSTALLATION  OF  ABRAHAM  J.  FELDMAN  AS  ASSIST- 
ANT RABBI  OF  REFORM  CONGREGATION  KENESETH  ISRAEL. 


Philadelphia,  February  8,  1920. 


We  are  gathered  in  holy  convocation,  you  in  your 
pews,  and  we  on  this  platform,  to  participate  in  the  con- 
secration of  a  union  between  a  Rabbi  and  a  Congregation. 
Next  to  a  solemnization  of  a  marital  tie,  I  know  of  few 
unions  that  carry  with  them  a  responsibility  equal  in  serious- 
ness to  that  upon  which  you  and  your  new  Assistant  Rabbi 
are  about  to  enter.  Like  unto  a  young  woman  who,  in  an- 
swer to  the  call  of  love,  and  in  response  to  the  choice  which 
a  young  man  has  made  of  her  to  be  his  wife  and  helpmate, 
his  counsellor  and  light,  the  sharer  of  his  every  joy,  the  com- 
forter in  his  every  sorrow,  his  stay  and  prop  in  all  the 
changes  and  chances  of  life;  like  unto  a  young  woman  who, 
in  answer  to  the  call  of  love,  leaves  her  home  where  plenty 
abounded,  where  peace  reigned  supreme,  where  loving 
hearts  watched  tenderly  and  lovingly  over  her,  so  as  he, 
whom  you  have  called  to  be  one  of  your  spiritual  leaders, 
left  a  field  of  activity  that  was  congenial  to  him,  a  field  in 
which  he  labored  faithfully  and  successfully,  left  a  congre- 
gation where  many  friends  deeply  regret  his  departure.  All 
this  has  he  left  behind  him,  to  do  in  your  midst  what  he 
pledged  himself  to  do  on  the  day  of  his  ordination,  to  teach 
and  to  preach,  to  exhort  and  to  admonish,  to  uplift  and  to 
inspire,  to  labor,  and  to  arouse  others  to  labor,  where  work 
is  needed  and  where  hands  are  slack,  where  ignorance  is 
rampant  and  error  abounds,  where  hearts  ache,  and  souls 
droop  and  wither. 

But,  as  the  marital  union,  if  it  is  to  be  lastingly  happy, 
imposes  sacred  duties  upon  the  man  as  well  as  upon  the 
woman,  exacts  faithfulness  and  devotion  from  the  husband 
as  well  as  from  the  wife,  so  does  a  union  between  a  minister 


126 

and  his  congregation  involve  serious  and  responsible  duties 
on  the  part  of  both,  if  it  is  to  prove  fruitful  to  each  of  them 
as  well  as  to  the  community  at  large.  Not  one  who  has 
studied  the  conditions  that  make  for  success  or  failure  in 
marital  life,  but  knows  that  where  there  is  no  husband's 
love  there  cannot  be  a  wife's  lasting  affection,  that  love  is 
the  necessary  element  of  a  woman's  life,  that  to  live  she 
must  love,  and  to  love  she  must  be  loved  in  return,  that  with 
a  husband's  love  there  is  no  sacrifice  within  a  wife's  power 
of  which  she  is  not  capable,  no  duty,  no  matter  how  trying, 
which  she  is  not  ready  to  perform,  that  without  a  husband's 
love  and  cheer  and  encouragement  their  home  is  built  on 
quicksand,  that  with  them  it  is  built  on  rocks  which  neither 
time  nor  circumstance  can  move. 

Of  a  like  nature  is  the  relationship  between  the  minis- 
ter and  his  congregation.  Unless  there  is  a  congregation's 
support,  there  cannot  be  a  minister's  success.  What  wind 
is  to  the  sail,  or  steam  to  the  propeller,  if  the  ship  is  to 
reach  its  port,  that  a  congregation's  support  is  to  the  Rabbi, 
if  his  ministry  is  to  attain  the  end  for  which  it  exists.  Be 
he  never  so  able,  never  so  eloquent,  if  his  congregation  does 
not  stand  solidly,  loyally,  behind  him,  does  not  work  and 
strive  and  battle  with  him,  in  vain  will  all  his  efforts  be,  in 
vain  will  be  all  his  hopes.  If  a  congregation  is  not  willing 
to  pledge  itself  to  such  support  to  the  Rabbi  of  its  call,  it 
has  no  right  to  extend  the  call ;  it  has  no  right  to  ask  him 
to  continue  in  its  midst.  If,  after  a  young  man  has  spent 
eight  or  nine  of  the  most  precious  years  of  life  to  a  study  of 
the  Rabbinical  profession,  and  one  and  one-half  more  years 
to  the  acquisition  of  practical  experience  in  the  ministry,  he 
answers  a  congregation's  call  to  come  and  minister  to  it, 
and  it  refuses  to  be  ministered  to  by  him,  it  is  false  to  its 
pledge,  to  its  Rabbi,  to  itself,  to  its  cause.  On  the  other 
side,  be  the  Rabbi  who  he  may,  be  his  talents  what  they 
may,  if  he  be  unable  to  lead  and  to  hold  a  congregation, 
the  congregation  is  duty-bound  to  set  him  aside  for  one  who 
is  able.  The  cause  is  greater  than  the  man.  There  must  be 
no  sentimentality  where  the  religious  needs  of  a  congrega- 
tion are  at  stake.  A  certain  general,  about  to  lead  his  men 


127 

against  a  mighty  foe,  addressed  them  thus:  "If  I  advance, 
follow  me.  If  I  flinch,  kill  me.  If  I  am  incapable  of  leader- 
ship, promptly  and  fearlessly  choose  a  capable  leader  in  my 
place,  for  the  battle  must  be  won."  As  that  general  spoke 
and  counselled,  so  will  every  conscientious  Rabbi  speak  and 
counsel,  and  the  Rabbi  who  speaks  and  counsels  thus  is  gen- 
erally one  who  leads  bravely  forward,  who  is  generally 
seen  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  who  never  flinches,  and 
seldom  fails. 

But,  as  little  as  the  battle  will  be  won  by  even  the 
bravest  of  generals,  if  his  men  do  not  follow  him  bravely 
and  fight  with  him  and  under  him,  and  fight  with  all  their 
hearts  and  souls  and  might,  so  little  will  a  Rabbi's  ministry 
be  victory-crowned  be  the  quality  of  his  leadership  never  so 
efficient,  and  his  spirit  never  so  valiant,  if  he  has  not  the 
following  of  a  congregation  equally  as  resolute  to  fight  for 
the  good  cause,  equally  as  determined  to  win  its  victories. 

And  let  it  be  well  understood  that  following  the  lea- 
dership of  a  Rabbi  does  not  mean  professing  oneself  a  Jew 
or  Jewess,  and  paying  one's  dues  to  the  Synagogue.  It 
does  not  mean  this  at  all,  if  by  it  be  meant  all  of  one's  con- 
nection with  the  Synagogue.  To  be  a  follower  of  the  Re- 
ligion of  Israel  means  above  all  things  battling  with  all  one's 
power  against  the  evils  that  are  arrayed  against  civilized 
society,  battling  against  sin  and  error,  against  greed  and 
corruption,  against  injustice  and  lawlessness,  against  hatred 
and  prejudice,  which  darken  our  horizon  at  the  present 
time,  and  which,  if  unstopped,  menace  to  engulf  our  future. 
It  means  living  outside  of  the  Synagogue  the  truths  taught 
inside  of  it.  It  means  giving  daily  demonstration  by  means 
of  personal  conduct  of  the  noble  principles  taught  by  the 
Religion  professed.  It  means  readiness  to  march  shoulder 
to  shoulder,  and  to  fight  side  by  side,  with  followers  of  any 
or  all  creeds,  whithersoever  led  in  the  cause  of  righteous- 
ness. 

That  knowledge  and  skill  cannot  be  acquired  by  non- 
attendane  upon  Divine  Service.  The  Synagogue  does  not 
profess  to  be  able  to  do  its  work  by  "absent  treatment."  It 
requires  the  presence  of  its  followers  not  once  or  twice  a 


128 

year,  but  at  every  service,  the  layman  as  well  as  the  leader, 
not  for  any  benefit  accruing  thereby  to  God  or  to  the  Rabbi, 
but  to  the  individual  worshipper  in  particular,  and  to  soci- 
ety in  general.  One  of  the  ancient  Rabbis  taught,  and  taught 
wisely,  that  "an  uneducated  man  cannot  be  pious."  Neither 
can  one  be  truly  pious  without  becoming  educated.  To  be 
righteous,  to  know  how  to  shun  evil,  to  resist  temptation, 
to  suppress  lusts  and  greeds  and  base  appetites,  to  overcome 
hatreds  and  prejudices,  requires  as  much  education  as  is 
required  to  master  a  science  or  a  profession,  or  to  learn  a 
trade.  To  be  able  to  call  forth  from  the  heart  and  soul  and 
mind  of  man  what  is  highest  and  best  and  noblest  within 
them  requires  as  much  training  as  is  required  to  call  forth 
a  sublime  melody  from  a  musical  instrument,  or  a  magnifi- 
cent statue  from  a  block  of  marble.  As  we  must  retreat, 
from  time  to  time,  from  noise  and  excitements,  if  we  would 
enjoy  rest  and  quiet  and  sleep;  as  we  must  withdraw,  from 
time  to  time,  from  crowds,  and  be  with  ourselves  so  as  to 
become  acquainted  with  ourselves,  so  must  we,  at  regular 
intervals,  retreat  from  the  toil  and  moil,  from  the  excite- 
ments and  dissipations  of  our  daily  routine,  and  retire  to 
our  Sanctuary  to  inquire  into  the  purpose  of  our  daily  toil 
and  moil,  to  ask  whither  our  pursuits  and  pleasures,  our 
gains  and  fames  are  leading  us — to  ask  ourselves,  or  to  be 
asked:  "How  long  yet?"  "And  then?"  "And  Why?" 
"And  Whither?" 

And  no  one  can  ask  himself  such  questions  as  these, 
or  have  them  put  to  him,  in  the  House  of  God,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  amidst  the  sacred  and  impressive  environ- 
ments that  there  abound,  and  not  leave  the  Sanctuary  the 
wiser  for  having  come,  and  not  resume  the  week's  work 
the  better  for  the  instruction  given,  for  the  admonition  re- 
ceived, the  readier  to  follow  the  leadership  of  him  who  has 
consecrated  his  life  and  all  for  the  good  of  every  member 
of  the  congregation,  of  every  member  of  the  community. 

Such  is  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  Divine  Service. 
Such  is  the  reason  of  this  Installation  Service.  Such  is  the 
mission  in  your  community  of  him  whom  you  have  called 
for  leadership  of  you.  May  you  follow  him  as  faithfully 


as  he  is  resolved  faithfully  to  lead  you.  May  you  labor 
and  strive  with  him  as  he  is  sacredly  resolved  to  strive  in 
your  midst,  with  all  the  power  with  which  God  has  en- 
dowed him,  for  your  good,  for  the  good  of  Israel,  for  the 
good  of  mankind.  His  success  will  mean  your  success,  and 
will  depend  on  you  as  well  as  on  him.  If  both  of  you  will 
give  each  the  best  that  is  within  you,  all  will  be  well.  May 
this  be  your  solemn  resolve  in  this  solemn  hour,  in  this 
solemn  place,  and  may  God  crown  it  with  blessed  fulfill- 
ment. Amen. 


INSTALLATION  ADDRESS  OF  RABBI  ABRAHAM 
J.  FELDMAN. 

There  are  great  moments  in  the  life  of  every  man. 
They  are  the  hours  of  decision,  when  one  struggles  with 
himself  in  an  effort  to  decide  worthily,  to  decide  truly,  to 
decide  wisely  as  to  the  path  of  duty.  They  are  the  mo- 
ments when  one  would  fain  lift  the  curtain  that  veils  the 
future  that  he  may  gain  the  help  needed  for  a  wise  de- 
cision. They  are  the  moments  when  a  man  assumes  graver 
responsibilities  and  greater  obligations.  It  is  at  such  times 
that  one  yearns  for  insight  and  foresight,  that  one  prays 
for  wisdom  and  understanding,  that  one  asks  and  petitions 
for  courage  and  strength.  For,  life's  great  moments  are 
difficult  moments,  difficult  because  of  the  consciousness  that 
they  are  surcharged  with  responsibilities  less  to  one's  own 
self  than  to  others,  and  because  they  are  or  ought  to  be  in- 
variably regnant  with  hope  and  with  prayerful  humility. 

It  is  through  such  a  period  that  I  have  passed  since 
your  call  to  this  pulpit  first  reached  me — and  this  moment 
is  its  culmination.  It  is  a  difficult  moment.  To  be  sure 
there  is  happiness.  To  be  sure  there  is  reverent  pride,  there 
is  joy.  But  these  are  after  all  only  the  lighter  aspects  of 
a  grave  hour.  It  is  a  great  moment  in  my  life,  to  be  now 
installed — as  I  just  have  been  installed,  with  promises  of 
co-operation  so  generous — as  one  of  the  teachers  in  the 
pulpit  of  this  Congregation,  a  pulpit  that  stands  high  in  the 
esteem  of  the  thoughtful  and  the  informed  of  our  people, 


130 

a  pulpit  that  is  forever  hallowed  and  consecrated  by  the 
prophetic  zeal  and  yearning  of  David  Einhorn,  by  the  pro- 
found learning  and  erudition  of  Samuel  Hirsch,  as  well 
as  by  the  thirty-odd  years  of  the  faithful  and  fruitful  serv- 
ice of  him  whom  it  is  your  privilege  to  know  as  your  leader, 
teacher  and  friend.  It  is  a  distinction  of  which  I  am — 
pardonably,  I  hope — proud  to  stand  where  Einhorn  and 
Hirsch  stood  and  to  serve  with  Joseph  Krauskopf — a  priest 
of  God,  whose  lips  keep  knowledge,  from  whom  thousands 
upon  thousands  have  sought  the  law  of  God,  and  whose 
work  has  been  bountifully  and  richly  blessed  and  rewarded 
in  the  lives  of  those  whom  he  has  taught,  whom  he  has 
inspired  and  guided.  I  deem  it  a  privilege  to  serve  with 
him,  to  learn  from  him,  to  assist  him — in  the  great  work 
and  in  the  sacred  cause. 

But  I  beg  of  you  who  are  my  people  now,  to  remember 
that  thirty-seven  years  in  the  pulpit  give  a  man  the  maturity 
which  one  after  a  year  and  a  half  in  the  pulpit  cannot  pos- 
sibly have.  I  ask  you  to  remember  that  at  the  beginning  of 
his  career  one  has  not  the  experience,  the  wisdom  and 'the 
learning  of  one  who  has  battled  valiantly  and  lived  in- 
tensely through  a  lifetime.  I  ask  you  to  judge  your 
Junior  Rabbi  not  by  the  high  standard  of  the  Senior.  In 
a  word,  I  plead  for  fairness,  as  I  assure  you  that  in  zeal, 
in  earnestness,  in  sincerity,  in  devotion  to  my  God  and  to 
the  people  to  whose  service  my  life  is  dedicated — I  yield 
to  none.  And  though  I  speak  the  word  of  Jeremiah  when 
called  to  the  difficult  and  arduous  task  of  teaching  and 
preaching  to  the  house  of  Israel:  "Ah,  Lord  God!  behold  I 
cannot  speak  for  I  am  but  a  lad" — yet  do  I  hear  the  ir- 
resistible charge:  "To  whomsoever  I  shall  send  thee  thou 
shalt  go,  and  whatsoever  I  shall  command  thee  thou  shalt 
speak."  I  come  here  to  serve.  I  come  here  to  learn.  I 
come  here  to  teach.  I  offer  myself  willingly  and  joyously 
to  service,  and  as  such,  as  one  of  the  "mithnadbhim  ba'am," 
as  one  of  those  who  have  offered  themselves  readily  and 
willingly  to  the  people,  I  believe  that  I  am  justified  in  ask- 
ing for  your  hearts,  in  asking  for  your  co-operation,  for 
your  encouragement  and  for  your  forbearance  as  I  pray 


with  the  Psalmist:    "7  am  Thy  servant,  0  Lord,  give  me 
understanding" 

But  it  is  not  I  alone  who  am  at  this  time  being  con- 
secrated anew.  It  is  you,  too,  who  are  this  day  renewing 
the  covenant  of  the  fathers ;  it  is  you,  too,  who  are  this  day 
repeating  the  pledge  of  the  fathers — "na'aseh  ve'nishma" 
— of  which  this  week's  Scriptural  portion  speaks,  the  pledge 
to  do,  to  live,  to  serve,  and  to  hear,  to  learn,  and  to  under- 
stand that  covenant  of  loyalty,  that  spiritual  bond  which 
has  given  Israel  the  fortitude  and  the  strength  to  face 
bravely  through  the  centuries  the  furies  of  human  hatred 
and  the  prejudices  of  darkened  minds  to  emerge  victorious 
despite  all ! 

When  we  stop  to  consider  the  history  of  our  people; 
when  we  stop  to  review  the  picturesque  diversity  of  our 
past;  the  rise  of  the  people  of  Israel  out  of  tribal  inde- 
pendence into  a  united  nation,  out  of  Bedouin  obscurity  and 
the  Arabian  desert  into  the  priesthood  of  the  Universal  God 
and  into  the  prophetic  missionaries  to  the  world;  when  we 
reflect  upon  the  remarkable  spiritual  evolution  of  Israel 
when  he  reached  out  of  the  conception  of  family  and  clan 
deities  unto  the  heights  of  ethical  monotheism,  and  think 
of  the  courage  of  conviction,  of  the  obstinacy  in  perse- 
verance, of  the  pride  in  persistence,  yes,  of  the  audacity  of 
faith  displayed  by  our  people  through  all  centuries,  we,  the 
most  recent  representatives  of  the  ancient  people,  are  prone 
to  marvel  in  pride  and  in  admiration.  Whence  that 
strength?  Whence  that  power?  What  the  secret  of  the 
resistance?  What  the  secret  of  the  continuity  of  this  small 
and  numerically  insignificant  group  in  the  face  of  so  tre- 
mendous an  opposition,  so  severe  a  persecution,  and  so  much 
adversity  ? 

Consider  it  carefully,  and  you  will  find  that  it  was 
the  force  of  an  ideal  that  stimulated  us;  that,  throughout 
all,  it  was  the  power  born  of  faith  and  confidence,  nourished 
by  an  inborn  optimism  and  trust,  come  to  fruition  in  the 
sterilizing,  purifying  fires  of  adversity,  and  steeled  and 
hardened  by  untold  suffering  that  made  us  proof  to  all 
the  shafts  of  intolerance  and  narrow,  one-eyed  zealotry. 


132 

It  was  an  ideal,  sublime,  exalted,  noble.  It  was  the 
ideal  presented  to  the  Jew  and  by  the  Jew  in  the  Torah  and 
in  the  literature  that  is  complementary  to  it.  It  was  the 
ideal  of  the  Torah  which  he  tried  to  live  when  he  was 
permitted,  and  to  preserve  for  a  time  when  he  would  be 
when  he  was  not  permitted.  It  was  the  Torah's  unsur- 
passed teachings,  its  towering  morality,  its  sublime  mes- 
sage that  have  together  formed  the  life-giving,  life-pre- 
serving principle  of  the  Jew.  It  was  a  veritable  tree  of 
life  to  him,  because  he  clung  to  it;  verily,  it  made  him 
happy  in  the  darkest  hours  and  moments  because  he  kept  it. 

Oh,  that  all  men  should  take  the  trouble  to  read  those 
sacred  pages  again  and  again !  Oh,  that  all  men  might  re- 
pair to  that  Book,  inspired  because  inspiring,  sacred  be- 
cause sanctifying,  and  live  the  morality  it  preaches,  realize 
the  brotherhood  it  proclaims.  Ah,  what  a  different  aspect 
Jewish  history  would  have !  How  much  less  of  the  red  of 
martyr-blood  would  be  found  upon  its  pages,  how  much 
more  of  the  whiteness  of  tolerance,  of  the  purity  of 
brotherly  love,  of  the  essential  goodness  of  men  could  the 
eternal  people  have  witnessed  on  its  march  through  the 
ages! 

Our  march  through  the  ages!  What  a  march,  what 
a  spectacle,  what  a  tale  it  relates ! 

Our  thoughts  revert  to  the  time  when  the  glory  of 
God's  revelation  first  appeared  at  the  gates  of  consciousness 
of  Abraham,  our  father.  Warmed  by  the  resplendent  glow 
of  the  Shechinah  he  forsook  country,  birthplace,  family  and 
friends,  and  set  out  to  be  the  apostle  of  the  One  God,  his 
children  and  progeny  the  heralds  proclaiming  the  Eternal 
God's  eternal  Truths.  Into  the  desert  they,  went  to  com- 
mune with  their  God,  there  to  be  inspired  and  ordained,  to 
free  their  souls  even  as  they  had  freed  their  bodies,  to  cast 
off  and  away  the  shackles  of  idolatry  and  the  fetters  of 
superstition  even  as  they  did  the  more  material  bonds  of 
the  centuries  of  their  bondage  and  slavery.  To  the  land 
of  promise  they  directed  their  steps.  There  they  set  them- 
selves to  the  task  of  preaching  by  example.  Time  and  again 
did  the  peoples  of  the  earth  attempt  to  destroy  this  people— 


133 

but  in  vain!  Again  and  again  did  Egypt  and  Babylonia, 
Assyria  and  Syria  endeavor  to  crush  out  of  existence  the 
small  nationality  on  the  banks  of  the  Mediterranean — but 
in  vain,  thank  God!  Their  land  they  could  conquer,  them 
they  could  exile,  but  their  souls,  the  souls  set  aflame  by 
the  divine  fire  of  God's  Truth — never!  Propelled  by  this 
power  our  people  went  on,  a  "forward  moving  force," 
witnesses  to  the  God  of  creation,  the  Father  of  mankind. 
Not  the  conquered,  but  the  conquerors;  not  the  vanquished 
but  the  victors! 

On  the  sea  of  human — or  shall  I  say,  inhuman — hatred 
which  extends  across  the  centuries,  from  the  crest  of  one 
furious  wave  of  enmity  unto  that  of  another,  Israel  has 
been  repeatedly  cast  since  the  Roman  conquest.  Driven 
from  post  to  pillar  and  back  again,  homeless  and  friendless, 
Israel  the  prophet  of  the  ages,  whose  overhead  shelter  is 
destroyed  before  it  is  yet  fully  grown,  comes  down  to  us 
from  the  gray  and  hoary  past,  a  mysterious,  misunderstood 
phenomenon.  Like  his  prototype — Jeremiah,  Israel  had 
been  cast  into  the  miry  cistern  of  the  persecution,  the  re- 
viling and  the  abuse  of  a  world  risen  against  him,  and  is  as 
yet  unable  to  come  out,  as  did  the  prophet,  to  see  the  people 
realize  the  truth  of  his  teaching, — to  see  the  beneficent  sun 
of  love  and  justice,  of  fraternity  and  fellowship,  of  hu- 
manity and  Godliness  shine  down  upon  an  earth  which  for 
the  present,  is  still  enveloped  in  darkness,  a  world  whose 
brightest  color  is  still  the  red  of  shed  brother's  blood  and 
not  as  yet  the  white  of  purity  and  love. 

From  the  blood-stained  streets  of  Jerusalem  in  the  year 
70,  through  the  centuries  of  wandering  and  persecution; 
from  under  the  iron  heel  of  brutal  Rome  into  the  hellish 
fire  of  the  auto  da  fe  lit  by  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  through 
the  countless  false  accusations  of  the  Middle  Ages,  through 
the  physical  persecutions  in  Roumania  and  Austria,  and  the 
spiritual  anti-Semitism  of  modern  Germany,  to  the  mas- 
sacres of  barbaric  Russia,  the  Dreyfus  case  of  civilized 
France,  the  Beilis  case  of  vodka-sodden  Tsardom,  the  Frank 
case  of  Law-and-Order-pttrsuing  America,  and  the  boycott 
and  massacres  of  freedom-loving  and  liberated  Poland — 


134 

Israel,  crucified  a  thousand  times,  comes  amarching  down 
the  centuries.  Stript  of  his  land,  stript  of  all  that  was 
dear  to  him  and  that  makes  life  attractive,  through  gallows 
and  sword,  through  fire  and  water,  behold  the  ancient,  the 
eternal  Jew  appear  to  us  through  the  mists  of  the  past,  still 
hugging  to  his  aching,  wounded,  bleeding  breast  the  Divine 
Word  entrusted  to  his  care. 

The  force  of  an  ideal,  indeed!  A  tree  of  life,  be- 
cause he  clung  to  it :  it  made  him  happy,  yes,  cheerful  and 
hopeful  no  matter  what  his  foes  thought  or  did. 

Oh,  that  Israel's  congregations  would  realize  this !  Oh, 
that  we,  you  and  I,  and  our  brethren  everywhere  might 
realize  the  full  import  of  Moses'  admonition :  "This  is  not  a 
vain  thing  unto  you ;  it  is  your  very  life  and  by  it  will  you 
prolong  your  life  upon  the  land."  Oh,  that  on  this  day 
of  renewal  of  consecration,  at  this  covenant-hour,  in  this 
consecrated  house,  we  resolve  highly  and  firmly  that  the 
sacrifices  of  the  past  shall  not  have  been  made  in  vain,  that 
the  loyalty  of  the  fathers  find  renewed  expression  in  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  their  descendants,  that  the  zeal  of  the 
past  be  the  inspiring  influence  in  our  lives  in  the  present 
and  in  the  lives  of  our  children — who  are  of  the  future. 

Oh,  for  the  sincerity  and  the  earnestness  that  would 
impel  us  to  approach  our  Father  with  the  petition  that  He 
give  us  the  strength,  the  courage,  the  soul-lifting  inspira- 
tion to  hold  firmly  to  the  Truth,  to  cling  to  it  with  all  the 
fervor  of  the  martyrs  of  our  race.  Oh,  that  the  merciful 
Father  imbue  us  as  He  did  our  fathers,  with  that  spirit 
of  persistence  and  loyalty  with  which  we  shall  face  the 
future,  always  bearing  aloft  our  Torah,  the  emblem  of  His 
Truth,  marching  on  with  it  as  our  standard,  marching  for- 
ward with  it  as  our  banner,  marching  onward  and  forward 
to  the  melody  which  all  of  nature  sings,  to  the  music  of  the 
song  which  every  tree  and  stone  and  babbling  brook,  every 
star  and  planet  and  constellation  entones  clearly,  audibly, 
distinctly — "Shema  Yisrael,  Adonai  Elohenu,  Adonai 
Echad!" — Hear  O  Israel,  hear  O  Universe,  hear  all  man- 
kind, the  Eternal  our  God — He  is  One!  Amen. 


SERIES  XXXIII.  No.   18. 


A  DISCOURSE  AT  TEMPLE  KENESETH  ISRAEL. 


By  RABBI  ABRAHAM  J.  FELDMAN. 


Philadelphia,  February  29,  1920. 


"Therefore  the  prudent  doth  keep  silence  in  such  a 
time;  for  it  is  an  evil  time."  Thus  spoke  the  first  of  the 
great  literary  prophets  of  Israel,  stating  a  fact,  and  not 
giving  advice.  The  age  in  which  he  lived  was  an  age  not 
unlike  our  own,  a  period  that  resembled  our  contemporary 
period  to  a  very  remarkable  degree.  Jeroboam  II,  King  of 
Israel,  had  just  returned  from  a  successful  military  expedi- 
tion. All  visible  enemies  of  his  kingdom  had  seemingly 
been  vanquished.  Peace,  a  lasting  and  durable  peace 
seemed  to  have  been  assured.  Prosperity,  the  like  of  which 
had  not  been  surpassed  in  any  previous  or  subsequent  period 
of  Israelitish  history,  prevailed.  The  nation  felt  strong,  it 
felt  secure  in  its  strength,  it  was  enormously  wealthy.  Com- 
merce was  developed  to  a  maximum,  wealth  abounded,  lux- 
ury was  rampant.  The  people  were  proud  of  their  achieve- 
ments, proud  of  their  history — and  complacency,  a  smug 
complacency  ruled  over  the  hearts  and  consciences,  over  the 
morals  and  religion  of  the  "representative"  class,  the  "bet- 
ter" class  of  the  society  of  that  day. 

Prosperity  had  then — as  it  has  now — an  obverse  and 
a  reverse.  Only  certain  classes  benefited  by  it.  The  ruling 
classes,  then,  amassed  great  wealth,  even  as  they  who  amass 
great  wealth  nowadays  become  the  ruling  classes.  The 
more  they  had,  the  more  did  they  crave.  Greed  became  a 
passion.  Greed  led  to  violence.  Violence  was  aided  and 


abetted  by  injustice  and  fraud.  Universal  piracy  devel- 
oped. Slavery  was  common.  The  rich  grew  richer.  With 
riches  came  arrogance,  followed  or  accompanied  by  a  com- 
plete disregard  of  the  rights  and  needs  of  the  poor.  And 
the  poor  were  growing  poorer.  The  poorer  they  became, 
the  more  were  they  exploited.  In  fine,  the  country  was  in  the 
mazes  of  a  corruption  that  extended  through  the  social  and 
religious  aspects  of  the  community's  life.  "It  is  an  evil 
time,"  said  the  prophet;  a  time  when  prudence,  regard 
for  one's  safety,  regard  for  one's  own  welfare — should  be 
the  rule  of  conduct,  to  the  man  who  perceives  the  rottenness 
surrounding  him.  He  was  stating  but  a  fact,  he  was  telling 
what  many  men  who  saw  and  knew  undoubtedly  did,  but 
he  was  not  giving  advice,  for  he  proceeded  in  very  dramatic 
fashion  to  tell  the  people  of  the"  error  of  their  ways,  to  stir 
and  awaken  them  to  the  realization  of  the  lot  awaiting  them 
in  the  wake  of  the  smugness  and  the  delusive  self-satisfac- 
tion in  which  they  were  steeped. 

There  are  times  when  prudence  is  the  better  part  of 
valor.  There  are  times  when  a  genuine  love  of  country  com- 
mands and  demands  prudence  of  speech.  There  be  times 
when  silence  is,  indeed,  golden.  There  be  movements  and 
conditions  that  can  best  be  nipped  and  remedied  by  and 
through  silence.  There  are  times,  however,  when  all  that  is 
best  in  a  man  cries  out  against  prudence,  when  honesty  for- 
bids it,  when  sincerity  inhibits  it.  There  are  times  when  one 
must  speak,  when  love  of  country  demands  it,  when  one's 
most  cherished  ideals,  when  a  man's  most  profound  convic- 
tions, when  a  high  regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  human 
family  cry  out  in  protest,  in  ardent,  vehement  protest 
against  silence  on  the  score  of  prudence!  What  if  "They 
hate  him  that  reproveth  in  the  gate"?  What  if  "They  abhor 
him  that  speaketh  uprightly"  ?  The  voice  within  commands : 
"Speak!"  and  he  is  indeed  unworthy  who  permits  prudence 
or  policy  to  negate  the  demand  of  his  conscience. 

To  speak  of  true  and  false  Americanization,  would  ap- 
pear at  first  to  have  as  much  meaning  as  speaking  of  "golden 


gold"  and  "silver  gold."  The  one  is  tautological,  the 
other  is  inconceivable.  And  yet  there  is  much  in  the  situ- 
ation that  is  flagrantly  false.  There  is  much  in  the  Amer- 
icanization vogue  of  the  day,  that  reminds  one  of  the 
numerous  household  economists  of  the  fair  sex  propound- 
ing economic  theories  and  showering  advice  upon  poor 
housewives  as  to  saving  in  the  kitchen,  who  themselves 
know  little,  precious  little  or  nothing  of  kitchen  economies 
and  who  themselves  live  in  non-housekeeping  apartments. 
Americanization  has  become  a  fad,  and  being  a  fad  it 
is  carried  to  undreamt  of  extremes.  For  us  to  attempt  the 
Americanization  of  others,  presupposes  our  possession  of 
a  precious  measure  of  the  true  and  lofty  spirit 
of  America's  fathers.  To  Americanize  others  would  imply 
that  the  living  agent  of  Americanization  be  himself 
an  apostle,  inspired  and  convinced,  intelligent  and  know- 
ing, possessed  of  that  spirit  which  moved  and  animated  a 
Washington  and  a  Jefferson,  a  Hamilton  and  a  Franklin, 
a  Lincoln  and  a  Wilson,  a  John  Hay  and  a  Roosevelt.  You 
cannot  suddenly  set  out  to  Americanize  any  more  than  you 
can  compose  a  symphony,  knowing  nothing  of  music-tech- 
nique. One  has  to  live,  one  has  to  think,  one  has  to  serve — 
in  the  spirit  of  America,  if  one  would  convey  some  of  the 
meaning  of  Americanism  to  others.  Americanism  is  not  a 
fashion — it  is  a  life,  it  is  a  social  philosophy,  it  is  an  inspira- 
tion. Americanism  is  nothing  tangible,  nothing  that  can 
be  put  under  a  glass  and  placed  upon  a  mantelpiece. 
Americanism  is  a  state  of  mind,  it  is  an  attitude  towards  life, 
towards  men.  Americanism  must  be  felt  before  it  is 
preached,  it  must  be  experienced  before  it  is  proclaimed. 

To  transmit  this  to  others,  to  bestow  of  this  sacred 
flame  unto  others  is  to  Americanize.  Americanization  thus 
becomes  not  the  process  of  forcing  something  upon  such 
as  have  not  been  born  on  these  shores,  but  the  holding  out 
of  a  hope,  a  great  human  hope  to  every  man  and  woman 
and  child. 


Actually,  however,  what  has  Americanization  come  to 
mean?  To  understand  this  WQ  must  realize  that  this  me- 
chanical Americanization  which  is  so  fashionable  now  is 
but  the  Prussian ization  of  a  plan  proposed  sometime  in 
1914.  It  was  noticed  that  between  the  years  1900-1914  the 
number  of  immigrants  coming  into  the  United  States  was 
about  thirteen  and  a  half  millions.  It  was  further  noticed 
that  nine-tenths  of  these  came  from  Southern  and  Eastern 
Europe  and  Western  Asia — all  non-English-speaking  stock, 
and  that  more  than  three  millions  of  those  who 
were  above  the  age  of  fourteen  were  illiterate.  How 
to  assimilate  this  vast  number,  how  to  help  them  adapt 
themselves  to  their  new  environment,  how  to  impart 
unto  them  a  knowledge  of  our  life  and  manners  and  cus- 
toms, and  how  to  imbue  them  with  those  ideals  which  are 
fundamental  to  a  true  conception  of  the  hope  and  faith 
that  is  America — these  formed  the  problem,  and  to  solve 
this  problem  the  Division  of  Immigrant  Education  was 
formed  in  1914  by  the  Bureau  of  Education  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior.  And  the  work  undertaken  by  that  Di- 
vision came  to  be  known  as  "Americanization."  It  was  an 
attempt  to  teach  these  newer  Americans  the  language,  the 
customs,  the  ideals  of  America.  Its  objects  were  to  give 
the  immigrant  the  opportunities  and  facilities  to  learn  of 
and  to  understand  his  duties  to  America,  to  unite  all  racial 
groups  and  all  factions  in  service  for  America,  to  bring 
natives  and  foreign-born  together  in  more  friendly  rela- 
tions, to  promote  mutual  understanding.  The  purpose  of 
Americanization  was  to  unify  the  different  groups  of  the 
American  Commonwealth  on  a  platform  of  common  service 
in  the  interests  of  that  freedom  which  prompted  the  found- 
ers of  the  Republic,  and  in  the  cause  of  that  manhood  \vhich 
America  at  her  truest  and  best  posits  and  develops.  It 
was  a  program  that  called  for  fair  play,  that  was  based 
on  the  principle  of  the  square  deal,  that  was  as  different 
from  exploitation  as  noon  is  from  midnight.  It  was  based 
on  the  principle  enunciated  by  Commissioner  Claxton,  that 


"A  man  may  be  a  good  and  patriotic  citizen  even  though 
he  knows  no  English,"  and  that  "his  heart  may  long  have 
learned  to  throb  American  pulsations,  though  his  lips  may 
still  be  refractory  in  nationalizing  themselves." 

Americanization,  true  Americanization,  has  nothing  in 
common  with  the  melting-pot  theory  of  our  rabid  patriots. 
The  melting-pot  theory  is  ethically  negative,  and  humanly 
obnoxious.  We  ask  no  one  to  surrender  distinctiveness 
when  we  preach  Americanization.  We  want  no  self-denun- 
ciation, we  wrant  none  to  yield  a  jot  or  tittle  of  the  heritage 
of  the  ages.  We  but  help  them  by  providing  them  with 
the  means — to  restate  the  best  that  they  have  of  their  previ- 
ous experience  in  terms  of  America,  and  to  translate  that 
into  the  language  and  ideology  of  American  democracy  and 
democratic  ideals.  In  a  word — true  Americanization  is 
not  coercive,  has  none  of  the  elements  of  force,  of  brute 
force  and  intimidation.  It  is  a  process  of  education ;  it  is  a 
process  of  inspiration ;  it  is  a  problem  in  human  sympathy 
and  brotherly  understanding,  in  broadmindedness  and  in  a 
liberal  and  iunderstanding  attitude.  It  is  a  problem  in 
health,  in  housing  conditions  that  are  good  and  conducive 
to  decency  and  morality,  in  decent  wages,  in  justice  and 
fairness.  It  is  less  a  theory  than  an  example.  It  is  more  a 
challenge  to  the  native  than  emphasis  upon  the  shortcom- 
ings of  the  foreign-born. 

This  is  what  Americanization  was  to  be  when  the 
program  was  outlined  in  1914 — and  what  it  still  is  in  the 
minds  and  hopes  of  true  Americans.  During  the  war, 
however, — i.  e.,  since  our  entry  into  the  war  in  1917,  the 
hysteria  of  patriotism  that  swept  Americans  off  their  feet 
caught  the  subject  of  Americanization  into  its  whirl,  and 
since  then  the  practical  aspect  of  the  solution  to  this  very 
important  problem  changed.  Americanism  and  American- 
ization and  Patriotism  became  the  slogans  of  political 
groups  and  would-be  political  leaders.  It  has  been  pulled 
down  from  the  position  of  a  sensible  and  dignified  program 
for  the  solution  of  a  vital  problem  to  be  bandied .  around 


by  men  who  are  mere'  tyros  in  American  respectability, 
and  has  become  the  stock  and  trade  of  political  orators  who 
have  nothing  else  to  arrest  attention  with. 

We  hear  the  plea  for  Americanization  from  platform 
and  forum;  we  read  it  in  columns  after  columns  of  our 
newspapers,  magazines  and  journals;  presidential  candi- 
dates parade  with  it;  church  leaders  pronounce  it  part  of 
their  church  doctrine  and  dogma  and  policy.  And  yet, 
throughout  the  land  the  spirit  that  America  might  cor- 
porealize  stalks  about  homeless  and  wellnigh  friendless. 
They  who  turn  justice  to  wormwood,  and  cast  righteousness 
to  the  ground,  they  who  know  not  to  do  fight,  who  store 
up  violence  and  robbery,  they  who  oppress  the  poor  and 
crush  the  needy,  who  multiply  transgressions,  who  afflict  the 
just  and  turn  aside  the  needy  in  the  gate — the  profiteers 
and  -corrupt  politicians,  they  be  the  ones  who  shout  "Amer- 
icanization" the  loudest,  who  prate  the  most  of  "Patri- 
otism," who  call  insistently  for  "Loyalty" — and  are  using 
every  means  at  their  command  to  prevent  them  who  love 
America  with  a  love  that  is  transcendant,  and  honor  Amer- 
ica as  only  a  loving  son  honors  his  mother,  whose  devotion 
and  attachment  is  .selfless — to  whom,  in  the  words  of  Secre- 
tary Lane,  America  is  an  inspiration,  to  whom  America  is 
a  spirit,  to  whom  it  is  a  constant  and  continuous  searching 
of  the  human  heart  for  the  thing  that  is  better — prevent- 
ing such  through  misapplied  and  illegal  police  power, 
through  coercion  and  intimidation  from  awakening  the 
nation  to  a  realization  of  the  danger  in  which  it  finds  itself 
— from  making  the  American  people  realize  that  in  the  name 
of  their  organic  law  and  Constitution  they  are  being  de- 
prived of  those  very  rights — and  sacred  rights  they  are — 
which  the  Constitution  was  framed  to  safeguard  and  protect ! 
There  has  been  an  inhibition  of  speech  through  the  raising 
of  the  misleading  cry  of  Bolshevism  and  Bolsheviki  against 
anyone  who  dares  exercise  the  right  of  petition  and  address, 
the  right  of  thought  and  expression  of  thought,  the  right 
to  vote  as  his  own  conscience  dictates,  as  against  the  con- 


scienceless  and  unprincipled  dictation  of  political  bosses.  It 
is  exactly  as  it  was  in  Amos'  day  when  the  ruling  and 
wealthy  classes  with  their  high  priest,  Amaziah,  at  their  head, 
protested  against  the  conscience-awakening  cry  of  Amos 
on  the  ground  that  "The  land  is  not  able  to  hear  his  words." 
Then  the  attempt  was  made  to  "Israelitize" — if  I  may  coin 
the  term — and  they,  then,  understood  by  it  very  nearly  what 
our  self-styled  "patriots"  understand  by  "Americanization" 
now — keeping  the  people  within  the  by-them-prescribed 
bounds,  the  preservation  of  the  established  order  of  things 
without  allowing  even  .for  normal  and  essential  growth. 
They,  then,  even  as  our  own  self-proclaimed  preservers  oi 
American  integrity  and  purity  now,  assumed  the  cloak  of 
patriotism,  the  cloak  of  love  of  country  in  their  unworthy 
and  damnable  efforts  to  prevent  justice,  obscure  the  right, 
rob  the  people,  and  impose  upon  the  stranger  and  foreign- 
born.  One  often  wonders  whom  Dr.  Johnson  had  in  mind 
when  according  to  Boswell  he  defined  patriotism  to  be  the 
last  refuge  of  a  scoundrel. 

And  of  one  more  effort  at  Americanization  would 
I  speak  ere  I  close,  viz.,  of  Christian  Americanization.  It 
is  difficult  to  understand  what  is  meant  by  Christian  Amer- 
icanization. The  question  came  up  last  September,  then 
again  in  October,  and  again  a  fortnight  ago  in  this  city. 
That  there  is  a  contradiction  in  terms  is  self-evident.  How 
can  anything  that  is  truly  and  finely  American  be  at  the  same 
time  exclusively  Christian,  or  Jewish,  or  Buddhist?  The 
American  nation  is  a  religious  nation — but  only  because  the 
vast  majority  of  its  constituent  individuals  are  religious  men 
and  women.  But  to  say  that  this  nation  is  religious  is  one 
thing,  and  to  proclaim  and  declare  it  Christian  is  quite  an- 
other. The  cry  for  Christian  Americanization  is  but  an 
additional  evidence  that  some — and  not  a  few — of  our  pul- 
piteers need  lessons  in  Americanization  quite  as  much  as 
do  some  of  our  foreign-born.  Were  these  Christian  gentle- 
men acquainted  with  the  history  of  our  Constitution,  were 
they  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  America,  were  they 


men  of  vision  and  foresight,  were  they  the  possessors  of  a 
spirit  of  fairness  instead  of  blinding  narrow  bigotry — they 
would  speak  of  Americanization  unadjectived  and  unadul- 
terated, then  would  they  lead  their  flocks  to  the  heights 
where  God  sits  enthroned  upon  the  praises  of  all  men,  His 
children,  then  would  they  realize  that  the  guarantee  of  re- 
ligious liberty  was  the  crowning  glory  of  American  achieve- 
ment, and  that  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  was  one 
of  the  greatest  forward  steps  in  the  history  of  civilization. 
Had  they  given  any  thought  to  the  lesson  of  history  they 
would  have  learned  that  the  earliest  and  most  primitive 
form  of  government  combined  civil  and  religious  au- 
thority in  one.  As  students  of  Christianity  they  might 
have  known  that  earliest  Christianity  was  opposed  to  the 
union  of  Church  and  State — "render  unto  Caesar  that 
which  is  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  that  which  is  God's." 
They  might  have  known  that  no  sooner  was  Christianity 
Romanized  then  it  became  "enthralled  by  an  unholy  con- 
nection with  the  unholy  state" — and  that  this  unholy  alli- 
ance continued  in  one  or  another  form  through  the  ages, 
until  America  set  the  example  and  led  the  world  in  liberal- 
ism by  liberating  the  conscience  of  the  world  from  the 
slavery  which  was  the  offspring  of  the  continued  and  un- 
hallowed union  of  Church  and  State. 

Asking  for  an  amendment  to  the  federal  constitution 
"that  shall  suitably  recognize  the  authority  and  law  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  ruler  of  nations,"  they  fail  to  count  with 
the  sense  of  fairness  of  the  average  American  and  betray  a 
narrowness  of  soul  and  a  form  of  sectarianism  which  in 
view  of  the  tradition  of  American  life  and  history  is  most 
unenviable  and  pitiful. 

In  view  of  the  first  amendment  to  our  Constitution, 
which  reads : 

"Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  estab- 
lishment of  religion," 


a  restriction,  which,  according  to  George  Ticknor  Cur- 
tis, "is  as  important  today  as  it  was  when  it  was  created ; 
for  the  more  numerous  and  the  more  powerful  any  church 
or  any  body  of  religionists  becomes,  the  more  necessary  is 
it  for  the  people  that  it  can  under  no  circumstances  short 
of  revolution  attain  to  any  preference  in  the  action  of  gov- 
ernment"— what  can  they  mean  by  Christian  Americaniza- 
tion— since  Americanization  it  is  not — but  a  type  of  Chris- 
tianization,  a  form  of  continued  missionary  effort,  which 
it  would  be  the  part  of  Christian  honesty — it  seems — to 
confess  and  to  call  a  spade  "a  spade,"  instead  of  attempt- 
ing to  camouflage  it  with  an  Americanism  that  is  as  un- 
American  as  it  is  un-Christian. 

Americanization  is  a  mission,  a  sacred  and  blessed 
mission.  None  but  the  pure  of  heart  and  the  clean  of  hand 
and  the  honest  of  purpose  may  have  aught  to  do  with  it! 
Americanization  is  a  ministry  to  which  none  but  the  unde- 
filed  and  the  unpolluted  may  be  called !  Americanization  is 
a  privilege  which  none. but  the  great  of  heart,  the  sound  of 
mind,  the  noble  of  soul  may  have!  Americanization  is  an 
education  and  its  method  is  that  of  teaching  by  example. 
Who  would  join  the  ranks  of  them  who  serve  the  cause 
of  humanity  by  intelligent  service  to  America  must  remem- 
ber that  'These  are  the  things  that  ye  shall  do:  Speak  ye 
every  man  the  truth  with  his  neighbor;  execute  the  judg- 
ment of  truth  and  peace  in  your  gates,  and  let  none  of  you 
devise  evil  in  your  hearts  against  his  neighbor."  (Zech, 
8:16,  17.) 

My  dear  people — I  plead  for  a  true  and  worthy  effort 
at  Americanization  as  against  the  false  and  dishonest  ones 
that  are  now  current.  I  ask  for  a  renewal  of  the  spirit  of 
true  and  worthy  patriotism — as  against  the  vociferous  kind 
that  loves  self  more  than  all  else  in  the  world.  I  charge  you, 
men  and  women,  to  serve  each  the  cause  of  America — Amer- 
ica noble  and  glorified,  America — spiritually  great  and 
truly  democratic,  America — consecrated  through  our  lives 


IO 

— yours  and  mine — to  the  service  of  God  through  the  high- 
est and  most  unselfish   service   of   man   and   mankind. 

Grant  unto  us,  O  God,  the  courage  and  the  strength 
so  to  serve.  Unto  us  may  the  wisdom  be  given — that  we 
may  serve  wisely  and  worthily.  May  the  spirit  which 
rented  upon  the  founders  of  our  great  Republic  rest  also 
upon  us,  to  inspire  and  guide  us.  May  honesty  of  purpose 
and  sincerity  of  intention  characterize  every  endeavor  on 
behalf  of  country  and  people.  Grant  it  in  Thy  goodness 
and  loving-kindness,  Father  of  Mercies,  Thou  Who  teitest 
and  knowest  the  innermost  thoughts  of  men.  Amen. 


SERIES  XXXIII.  No.  22. 

Hljat  is  Prong  rottlj  Seltgion? 


A  DISCOURSE  AT  TEMPLE  KENESETH  ISRAEL. 


By  RABBI  ABRAHAM  J.  FELDMAN. 


Philadelphia,  March  28,  1920. 


On  the  morrow,  March  the  twenty-ninth,  occurs  the 
loist  birthday  and  the  2Oth  anniversary  of  the  interment 
of  the  mortal  remains  of  the  great  builder  and  moulder,  of 
what  goes  under  the  name  of  American  Israel  or  American 
Judaism.  The  end  of  the  first  year  in  the  second  century 
since  the  birth  of  the  great  reformer  is  a  welcome  occasion 
to  dwell  briefly  on  the  task  which  he  made  his  own  and  to 
the  completion  of  which  he  dedicated  his  ripe  scholarship 
and  his  energetic  and  courageous  soul.  Upon  his  arrival  in 
this  country  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  he  found 
transplanted  in  America  part  of  the  Jewry  of  Ghettoized 
Europe,  who  brought  with  them  that  religious  organization 
which  may  have  thrived  in  the  secluded  European  Ghettoes, 
but  which  was  being  stifled  by  the  breath  of  freedom  which 
it  found  in  America,  even  as  the  candle  is  blown  out  by 
the  air  currents  when  removed  from  the  closet  to  the  great 
outdoors.  It  was  a  different  life  that  was  encountered  here, 
different  from  the  European  life.  As  the  life  of  America 
was  different,  as  it  was  new,  as  it  presented  new  prob- 
lems and  new  situations — so,  Judaism — or  at  least  its  for- 
mal and  external  aspects — had  either  to  adapt  itself  to  its 
changed  environment,  or  cease  to  be.  It  meant  either  life, 
continued,  developing,  blossoming  life  or  a  slow,  painful 


12 

agonized  death.  Orthodoxy,  then  as  ever,  everywhere, 
chose  to  remain-  orthodox,  to  remain  unyielding,  to  bury  its 
head  in  the  sand  and  proclaim,  "There  is  no  danger!"  Isaac 
Mayer  Wise  thought  otherwise.  He  meant  to  save  Judaism 
in  and  for  America.  To  do  it — he  realized  that  changes 
would  have  to  be  made,  that  antiquated  customs  will  have 
to  be  dropped,  that  European  and  Oriental  conceptions  in 
so  far  as  they  were  extraneous  matter,  in  so  far  as  they 
did  not  affect  the  principles  of  Judaism — would  have  to  be 
adapted  to  the  conceptions  of  the  new  age  and  clime  or,  to 
save  the  ship,  would  have  to  go  by  the  board.  Such  was 
the  underlying  thought  of  Wise's  work  and  aim — and  to 
the  attainment  of  this  goal  he  dedicated  himself  with  that 
zeal,  with  that  earnestness  which  characterized  his  life 
work.  "Failure"  was  a  word  unknown  to  him.  The  task 
was  there — it  had  to  be  performed — and  to  this  he  lent 
his  indomitable  will  and  his  compelling  personality.  The 
struggle  was  hard,  to  be  sure.  The  path  was  not  strewn 
with  roses.  There  were  thorns,  there  were  difficulties,  there 
were  obstacles  in  the  way. 

"The  idealists,"  he  writes  in  his  Reminiscences, 
"see  light  and  hope,  victory  and  triumph,  where  cold 
reason  perceives  no  noticeable  change.  We  dip  our 
brush  in  golden  colors,  paint  our  own  imaginary  pic- 
tures, and  embrace  them  as  though  they  were  real  cre- 
ations. The  beloved  smiles,  and  in  this  smile  the 
enamored  idealist  imagines  that  he  reads  a  declara- 
tion of  love.  Judaism,  progress — American  Judaism 
free,  progressive,  enlightened,  united,  and  respected — 
this  was  my  ideal ;  and  hence  in  every  smile  of  the  be- 
loved I  saw  a  victory  of  my  love.  I  have  often  been 
woefully  deceived.  Still  more  often  and  more  woe- 
fully have  I  deceived  myself,  and  that  is  worst  of  all." 

But  at  last  he  succeeded,  and  there  stand  as  monuments 
to  his  memory,  to  his  vision  and  zeal,  his  creative  works : 
The  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations,  the  He- 
brew Union  College,  the  Central  Conference  of  American 
Rabbis,  and  the  continuous  growth  of  Judaism  in  America— 


13 

along  the  path  which  he  indicated  and  to  which  he  gave  the 
initial  directing  stimulus. 

For  the  anniversay  of  his  birth  I  feel  that  there  is  no 
theme  more  fitting  than  the  one  I  have  taken  for  this  day's 
consideration.  It  presents  a  most  vital  problem — than 
which  there  are  few  more  vital.  It  means  a  consideration 
in  the  light  of  a  new  day  of  the  task  which  faces  religion 
and  its  organization,  and  it  implies,  furthermore,  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  part  the  religious  organization  shall  play  and 
must  play  in  the  reconstruction  of  our  life  and  in  the  recon- 
structed life  to  which  the  thoughtful,  the  earnest  and  the 
faithful  of  humanity  have  pledged  their  lives  and  thoughts 
and  efforts  and  honor.  Were  Isaac  Mayer  Wise  alive  today, 
he  of  the  fearless  temperament,  he  of  the  clear  vision,  he  of 
the  progressive  mold  of  mind  and  nature,  he  might  be 
found  in  the  foreranks  of  this  spiritual  nobility  of  the  day, 
and  it  behooves  us  his  spiritual  heirs  to  exert  no  lesser  effort 
than  might  have  been  his — in  the  great  cause. 

What  is  wrong  with  Religion?  I  realize  that  to  give 
adequate  answer  to  this  question  a  series  of  discourses 
would  be  required.  In  the  brief  time  I  can  give  it  this 
morning,  I  will  be  able  to  touch  the  merest  fringe  of  the 
problem.  I  will  be  able  to  sketch  in  broad  outline  only 
the  contour  of  the  problem — hoping  at  some  other 
time  and  at  greater  length  to  fill  in  the  blanks  left,  of 
necessity,  today,  and  to  be  much  more  specific  than  time 
and  the  magnitude  of  the  theme  permit  of,  now,  What  is 
wrong  with  Religion?  If  by  Religion  we  understand  the 
longing  for  and  the  faith  in  the  ultimate  realization  of  the 
ideal,  of  the  noblest  aspirations  of  human  hearts;  if  by  Re- 
ligion we  understand  the  progressive  revelation  of  the  di- 
vine in  the  developing  conscience  and  consciousness  of  pro- 
gressive humanity;  if  by  Religion  we  understand  the  per- 
meating Ideal  of  all  of  life,  life's  inspiration,  life's  torch 
and  guide,  life's  suffusing  brilliance;  if  by  Religion  we  un- 
derstand that  conception  which  represents  life's  ruling 
principles  as  being  Justice  and  Mercy,  Righteousness  and 


14 

worthy  Humility — then,  the  answer  to  the  query  "What  is 
wrong  with  Religion  ?"  must  be  that  there  is  nothing  wrong 
with  it,  for  the  Ideal  is  still  present,  it  is  still  our  high  pro- 
fession, it  is  still  the  only  lodestar  which  may  lead  man 
to  heights  as  yet  unreached,  to  the  goal  as  yet  unattained. 
The  wrong,  the  error,  rests  not  with  Religion  which  is  the 
Ideal  but  with  the  instrument  which  man  has  created  in 
the  hope  of  realizing  the  Ideal  with  its  aid,  the  fault  and 
trouble  lie  with  the  organized  expression  of  Religion,  with 
the  organization  that  assumed  the  task,  that  was  called  into 
being  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  proclaiming  and  teaching 
Religion's  message,  the  institution  created  by  man  by  which 
he  may  be  led  in  the  path  that  leads  Godward, — the  fault 
and  wrong  and  error  are  with  the  church.  That  the  charge 
of  failure  is  made  against  Religion  is  due  to  an  error  of 
judgment  and  to  a  confusion  of  Ideal  with  symbol,  of  the 
end  with  the  means.  Religion  and  church  have  come  to  be 
identified  as  one,  the  two  became  erroneously  merged  into 
each  other  in  the  minds  of  people.  And  where  the  church — 
due  to  the  changing  needs  and  requirements,  due  to  the 
expanding  sway  of  and  need  for  the  Ideal,  due  to  the  new 
days  and  times,  by  reason  of  its  adherence  to  ancient  be- 
liefs and  to  ancient  methods,  by  reason  of  its  self-sufficiency 
and  smug  complacency  failed  to  grow  along  with  the  times 
and  to  adapt  itself  to  changed  conceptions  and  interpreta- 
tions of  the  Ideal  which  is  Religion — Religion  confused 
with  church  came  to  be  decried  as  needless  and  outworn 
and  lifeless.  Because  the  church  became  the  symbol  of  hide- 
bound conservatism,  because  it  stood  in  the  way  of  progress 
and  the  progressive  development  oi  mankind,  because  it  be- 
came the  instrument  of  reaction  and  of  the  dark  and  blind- 
ing forces  of  reaction — men  thoughtlessly  came  to  think  of 
Religion  in  whose  name  the  church  functioned  and  still 
attempts  to  function,  as  being  in  fact  what  the  church  in- 
terpreted it  to  be,  and  not  what  it  truly  was  and  is. 

Our  query  then  should  be  not  "What  is  wrong  with 
Religion?"  but,  "What  is  wrong  with  the  Church?"     Why 


15 

is  it  that  though  it  be  the  official  representative  of  Religion 
it  is  losing  its  hold,  it  is  not  holding  the  love  and  fealty 
of  Religion's  seekers?  Why  is  it  that  seminaries  and  theo- 
logical institutions  languish  for  want  of  students,  for  want 
of  young  men  of  ability,  of  zeal,  of  earnestness,  young  men 
of  vision  and  sublime  hope,  young  men  with  the  will  to 
serve,  with  the  consuming  fire  to  teach  and  preach  ?  Why  is 
it  that- such  young  men — and  there  are  hosts  of  them — turn 
elsewhere  for  the  outlet  of  their  religious  enthusiasm,  and 
not  to  the  church  which  needs  them  and  should  claim  them 
as  her  very  own  ?  Why  is  it  that  men  resort  to  the  moving 
picture  and  the  theatre,  worship  every  image  that  is  set  up 
on  the  highway,  follow  every  fad  that  is  introduced,  fill 
the  highways  and  the  byways  in  search  of  satisfaction  of 
that  inner  longing  which  drives  them  on  and  on  but  ever 
away  from  the  door  of  the  church?  Why  is  it  that  men 
are  easily  interested  in  other  things — in  politics,  in  sports, 
in  mercantile  endeavors,  in  trades  unions — but  have  to  be 
lured  and  enticed  into  the  church — as  the  child  is  coaxed 
into  doing  what  its  mother  wants  it  to  do  by  candy  or  a 
piece  of  cake? 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  fault  is  not  en- 
tirely with  the  irreligiosity  of  our  age,  that  the  defection 
from  the  organized  expression  of  Religion  is  at- 
tributable not  to  the  much  decried  materialism  of  our  gen- 
eration. Ours  is  an  age  of  transition.  Ours  is  an  age  that 
is  revolutionary  in  the  highest  degree;  revolutionary  not  so 
much  in  the  destructive  sense,  as  in  its  constructive,  regen- 
erative aspects.  In  the  crucible  of  hell-fire  men's  souls  have 
been  tried  as  they  have  never  been  tried  before.  Men  ex- 
perience the  agony  and  anguish  of  shattering  idols,  ideals, 
ideas.  The  world  has  gone  a-house-cleaning,  as  it  were, 
and  all  the  accumulated  rubbish  of  the  ages,  all  that  was 
and  is  non-essential  for  the  strength  of  society,  all  that  does 
not  tend  to  improve  upon  the  past,  all  that  is  not  actively, 
purposefully,  aimfully  active  and  creative  is  going  as  it 
should  go,  the  way  of  all  rubbish.  -  Wre  have  gotten  away 


i6 

from  the  time-worn  conception  that  the  individual  exists  in 
and  by  himself  and  for  himself.  We  have  awakened  to  the 
realization  that  man  is  never  merely  an  individual,  that  from 
the  very  moment  of  his  birth  he  is  part  of  a  group  of  three, 
and  that  his  interests  and  theirs  are  inseparable.  He  is  born 
into  a  society,  he  becomes — willy-nilly,  a  part  of  a  greater 
whole,  he  becomes  a  member  of  a  great  social  organism, 
he  is  born  a  member  of  a  community,  a  community  which 
has  obligations  to  him  as  he  has  obligations  to  it.  We 
have  come  to  realize,  too,  that  the  old  method  of  individual 
salvation  is  not  efficient  nor  effective  in  the  salvation  of 
the  group,  that  the  conception  that  in  this  association  of 
humans — called  Society — the  individual  is  of  supreme  im- 
portance and  that  if  we  could  but  influence  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  individuals,  mold  them  as  individuals,  better  them  as 
individuals,  all  the  problems  of  human  betterment  and  de- 
velopment will  thus  be  solved — is  antiquated  and  untrue. 
In  a  word,  the  new  age  has  stopped  thinking  in  terms 
of  individualism  and  is  learning  to  think  socially,  to  live 
socially,  to  act  socially.  But  while  men  have  thus  been 
changing — the  church  in  characteristic  fashion  clung,  and 
to  a  large  extent  still  clings  to  the  ancient  shibboleth  of  in- 
dividualism. It  is  still  striving  to  save  the  individual  soul. 
The  Catholic  Church  still  emphasizes  salvation  through 
identification  with  the  church  through  sacraments  and  mo- 
nasticism.  The  Protestant  Church  still  teaches  salvation  of 
the  individual  through  Faith  and  Conversion  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Unitarians  emphasize  salvation  of  the  individual 
through  education  and  learning.  And  modern  Judaism  in 
imitation  of  its  offspring — Christianity — has  forgotten  the 
Kenescth  Yisrael,  the  social  unit,  in  its  efforts  to  save  indi- 
vidual souls  through  the  combination  of  Faith  and  Works 
plus  a  defective  Jewish  education.  And  so  engulfed  have 
all  these  been  in  their  individualism  that  they  failed  to  real- 
ize that  the  world  was  marching  on — and  that  the  marching 
hosts  went  past  the  doors  of  church  and  synagogue — seek- 
ing the  message  which  Religion  has — a  message  which 


17 

manking  still  needs  so  sorely — seeking  it  elsewhere  than 
where  they  were  taught  to  look  for  it,  where  they  should 
look  for  it  not  in  vain,  but  where  it  is  no  longer  found. 

The  great  problems  of  our  age  are  not  interpretations 
of  doubtful  Biblical  texts,  are  not  the  hair-splitting  differ- 
ences between  denominations,  are  not  the  questions  of  what 
the  nature  of  the  reward  or  punishment  in  the  hereafter  may 
be — the  burning  questions  of  the  day  are  social  and  not  indi- 
vidual— they  are  the  problem  of  capital  and  labor,  the  prob- 
lem of  poverty  and  misery,  the  problem  of  social  health  and 
social  education — problems  concerning  not  any  one  man  or 
woman,  but  the  community,  the  social  aggregate.  People  are 
interested  less  in  the  life  after  death  than  they  are  concerned 
with  the  living  death  of  millions  of  their  fellow-beings. 
People  are  not  concerned  so  much  with  just  rewards  in  the 
hereafter  as  they  are  concerned,  vitally,  seriously  concerned 
with  social  justice  on  earth.  They  are  not  interested  in  the 
world  after  death,  they  are  greatly  concerned  about  the 
world  in  which  they  have  to  live,  they  and  their  children 
after  them.  They  are  not  concerned  so  much  with  the  maze 
of  meaningless  precepts  with  which  the  church  confronts 
them,  as  with  the  legislative  enactments  which  are  to  pro- 
tect them  and  their  dear  ones. 

You  see,  men  are  in  search  of  those  very  attributes  for 
which  Religion  at  its  best  and  purest — ever  stood.  But 
they  refuse  to  be  given  substitutes  which  do  not  replace 
and  which  neither  help  them  nor  save  them.  They  want 
to  drink  deep  of  the  living  waters  of  the  Ideal — but  refuse 
to  be  drugged  with  opiates.  They  are  religious — not  in  a 
sacramental  and  ecclesiastical  and  mediaeval  sense,  but  in 
a  social  and  in  a  prophetic  sense.  They  want  religion  to 
be  applied  to  life,  to  be  applied  in  life.  They  are  weary 
of  other-worldliness,  they  want  and  need  the  application  of 
religious  principles  in  the  store  and  in  the  shop,  in  the  bank 
and  on  the  stock-exchange,  in  the  legislature  and  in  the 
court  of  justice,  in  the  factory  and  mill  and  mine,  on  the 
street  and  in  the  home.  They  feel  that  the  church  must 


i8 

adapt  itself  to  the  new  age,  to  the  urgent  demands  of  a 
new  age.  It  is  felt,  and  rightly  so,  that  God  needs  not  re- 
ligion, but  that  Religion  is  the  expression  of  the  divinity 
in  man.  Consequently  every  human  problem  must  be  a  re- 
ligious problem.  Poverty  is  a  religious  problem.  Disease 
is  a  religious  problem.  Prostitution  is  a  religious  problem. 
Not  because  it  is  God's  will  to  curse  men  with  poverty 
and  disease  and  prostitution,  but  because  it  is  man's  injustice 
that  is  responsible  for  those,  because  these  represent  man's 
inhumanity  in  his  relations  to  fellow  men.  Every  occur- 
rence in  the  community — whether  political,  commercial,  in- 
dustrial or  educational — must  be  the  concern  of  the  church, 
for  nothing  that  concerns  man,  his  well-being  and  life — is 
outside  the  sphere  of  religion.  Everything  that  man  does 
has  a  moral  significance.  And  if  the  task  and  duty  of  the 
church  be  as  it  is,  to  help  men  to  be  moral,  then  must  it 
emerge  from  its  seclusion  and  cast  off  its  seeming  indiffer- 
ence to  public  morality  and  enter  the  fray  with  a  will — 
and  that  a  will  to  win,  proclaiming  anew  the  ancient  doc- 
trine, but  giving  it  renewed  emphasis,  that  God  may  be 
served  only  through  human  service,  and  that  lie  is  not  com- 
pletely moralized  who  is  not  most  thoroughly  socialized. 
Then  must  the  church  cease  being  a  mere  prayer-mill  where 
prayers  are  ground  out,  a  mere  phrase-mint  where  elegant 
phrases  are  coined,  a  "refuge  from  the  evils  of  the  world" ; 
then  must  the  church  become  the  leader  in  human  affairs 
and  hold  the  position  which  it  lost — that  of  being  in  the 
vanguard  of  the  onward-marching,  vigorous  life  of  its 
generation,  and  cease  being  a  straggler  and  a  follower. 

Thus  saith  the  Lord,  "Behold,  I  create  new  heavens 
and  a  new  earth."  God  is  working  today  as  yesterday 
through  man  His  highest  and  noblest  creation.  A  new  earth 
is  being  created — yea  it  has  been  created,  it  is  here,  and  is  ro- 
tating even  now  through  space.  Man  has  l>een  the  agent  in  this 
recreative  act  even  as  he  is  creating  now  the  new  heavens. 
The  church  will  either  awaken  to  its  great  opportunity, 
to  its  great  duty  and  obligation  of  leading  in  this  task — or 


19 

will  die  of  anemia  and  grief.  Upon  its  ruins  there  will 
then  be  reared  the  religious  organization  of  man  socialized 
and  moralized,  an  organization  whose  priest  will  be  every 
one  who  serves  God  through  worthy  human  service,  whose 
ministers  shall  be  every  man  who  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow 
produces  for  humanity  and  serves  mankind,  every  business 
man,  every  professional  man,  every  politician,  all  serving 
and  worshiping  at  the  altar  of  the  church  of  the  future 
which — as  in  the  vision  of  the  late  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 
shall  be — 

"a  church  of  the  deed  as  well  as  of  the  creed  .  .  . 
— a  church  where  science,  the  revelation  of  what  has 
been,  will  never  be  at  at  war  with  religion,  the  revela- 
tion of  what  ought  to  be — a  church  which  will  make 
its  worshipers  share  this  world  as  well  as  the 
next  world  .  .  . — a  church  which  will  declare  that 
the  difference  in  the  death  rate  between  the  classes  and 
i  the  masses  is  evidence  of  murder  done  for  money — a 
church  which  will  look  upon  idleness  by  the  side  of  in- 
dustry, wealth  by  the  side  of  poverty,  luxury  by  the 
side  of  want,  health  by  the  side  of  disease,  as  impious 
and  profane  in  the  highest  degree  .  .  . — a  church 
which  will  stop  the  manufacture  of  poorhouses  because 
it  will  stop  the  manufacture  of  poverty — a  church 
which  will  not  let  any  man  offer  charity  to  those  to 
whom  he  refuses  justice  .  .  . — a  church  that  will 
offer  not  even  the  lowliest  member  of  the  communion 
of  mankind  crumbs  from  the  table  but  a  seat  at  the 
table  and  a  full  meal  three  times  a  day  every  day  .  .  . 
— a  church  which  says  that  those  who  are  to  be  broth- 
ers hereafter  must  be  brothers  here — a  church  that  will 
know  what  its  members  believe  by  what  they  do — a 
church  which  recognizes  nothing  as  love  which  does 
not  bear  justice  as  the  fruit  .  .  . — a  church  which 
will  prevent  the  anarchy  from  below  by  punishing  the 
anarchy  from  above — a  church  which  will  deny  the 
right  of  infanticide  to  the  employer,  now  denied  by 
society  only  to  the  parents  .  .  . — a  church  which 
will  restore  reverence  to  men  by  giving  them  leaders 
in  church,  state  and  business  worthy  of  reverence — a 
church  which  will  make  every  social  wrong  a  moral 
wrong,  and  every  moral  wrong  a  legal  wrong  .  .  . 


20 

— a  church  which  will  abolish  the  merchant  prince  and 
the  factory  corporation  sooner  than  let  them  abolish 
the  childhood  of  children  .  .  . — a  church  in  which 
God  will  be  natural  and  men  supernatural — a  church 
which  will  abolish  charity  and  philanthropy,  for  these 
cannot  be  between  brothers,  and  need  not  be  where 
justice  is — a  church  in  which  no  man  will  have  a  right 
to  do  with  his  own  what  he  will,  but  only  a  right  to  do 
what  is  right — a  church  which  will  take  the  weak  and 
despised  out  of  the  earthy  Inferno  of  dirt,  and  want, 
and  ignorance,  to  which  they  have  been  condemned  by 
the  oppressor — a  church  which  will  keep  a  hell  not  in 
this  world  to  punish  the  oppressors  here  for  every  blow 
they  strike  at  God  through  his  image,  man — a  church 
which  will  tell  the  sinner  that  repentance  fit  for  heaven 
only  begins  by  restitution  and  reparation  on  earth — a 
church  which  will  teach  that  brothers  must  share  both 
the  mess  of  pottage  and  the  birthright — a  church  which 
will  worship  God  through  all  his  sons  made  in  His 
image,  .  .  . — a  church  which  will  realize  the  vision 
of  Carlvle  of  a  Human  Catholic  Church." 


SERIES  XXXIII.  No. 


A  DISCOURSE  AT  TEMPLE  KENESETH  ISRAEL. 


By  RABBI  ABRAHAM  J.  FELDMAN. 
Philadelphia,  April  18,  1920. 


"The  word  that  came  to  Jeremiah  from  the  Lord,  saying: 
Stand  in  the  gate  of  the  Lord's  house,  and  proclaim  there  this  word, 
and  say:  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  all  ye  of  Judah,  that  enter  in 
at  these  gates  to  worship  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel: 

Amend  your  ways  and  your  doings,  and  I  will  cause  you  to 
dwell  in  this  place.  Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words,  saying :  'The  tem- 
ple of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  are 
these.'  Nay,  but  if  ye  thoroughly  amend  your  ways  and  your 
doings;  if  ye  thoroughly  execute  justice  between  a  man  and  his 
neighbor;  if  ye  oppress  not  the  stranger,  the  fatherless,  and  the 
widow,  and  shed  not  innocent  blood  in  this  place,  neither  walk 
after  other  gods  to  your  hurt;  then  will  I  cause  you  to  dwell  in 
this  place,  in  the  land  that  I  gave  to  your  fathers,  for  ever  and 
ever.  Behold,  ye  trust  in  lying  words,  that  cannot  profit.  Will  ye 
steal,  murder,  and  commit  adultery,  and  swear  falsely,  and  offer 
unto  Baal,  and  walk  after  other  gods  whom  ye  have  not  known, 
and  come  and  stand  before  Me  in  this  house,  whereupon  My  name 
is  called,  and  say:  'We  are  delivered/  that  ye  may  do  all  these 
abominations?  Is  this  house,  whereupon  My  name  is  called,  be- 
come a  den  of  robbers  in  your  eyes  ?  Behold,  I,  even  I,  have  seen 
it,  saith  the  Lord." — Jeremiah  vii:i-n. 

"For  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  the  house  of  Israel : 
Seek  ye  Me  and  live ; 
But  seek  not  Beth-el, 
Nor  enter  into  Gilgal, 
And  pass  not  to  Beer-sheba; 

Seek  the  Lord,  and  live." — Amos  v  :4-6. 


22 

At  the  conclusion  of  my  recent  address  on  "What  Is 
Wrong  with  Religion"?  a  friend  in  the  congregation  sug- 
gested that  I  had  a  considerable  task  before  me,  a  task 

i 
that  would  require  a  lifetime  to  accomplish,  were  I  to  set 

myself  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  program  I  barely  out- 
lined then.  I  replied  that  it  was  not  my  task  alone — that 
it  was  my  friend's  task  as  well,  and  that  the  task  is  begin- 
ning to  be  fulfilled.  To  be  sure,  it  will  require  many  voices 
and  many  protests,  many  hearts  and  man}'  days  ere  the 
dream  be  realized.  But  the  fact  is  that  there  are,  even 
now,  signs  of  awakening  within  the  church,  and  that  some 
religious  leaders  are  in  the  van  of  the  growing  numbers  of 
truly  religious  men  and  women  who  are  seeking  to  place  the 
church  again  and  through  it — Religion — in  the  position  of 
moral  leadership  in  world  affairs.  Slow,  very  slow,  indeed, 
is  the  progress.  But  that  is  not  surprising.  For,  consider 
what  the  requisites  of  Religion  Socialized  are.  It 
means  a  change  in  the  psychology  of  peoples.  It  means  a 
change  in  the  habits  of  thought,  habits  that  have  been  in  the 
process  of  formation  through  countless  generations.  It  means 
a  recasting  of  traditional  ideas  about  God,  a  recasting  of  our 
most  fundamental  beliefs  and  doctrines.  It  means  the  realiza- 
tion that  a  distinction  should  be  made  between  myth  and 
truth  and  Religion,  and  the  honest  statement  on  the  part  of 
church  officials  and  leaders  that  there  is  much  that  is  mere 
chaff  in  the  doctrines  and  teachings  which  are  ascribed  to 
Religion.  It  means  that  there  will  have  to  come  to  the  people 
a  realization  of  the  difference  between  superstition  and 
truth,  between  what  is  merely  external  and  what  partakes 
of  the  nature  of  reality.  It  will  mean  that  people  will  cease 
fearing  God,  lest  He  avenge  Himself  for  an  offense  or 


23 

offenses  against  His  law,  but  that  people  will  so  love  the 
Lord  as  to  forget  fear,  that  people  will  so  serve  Him  as  to 
remember  only  His  loving-kindness  and  goodness,  that 
people  will  so  worship  Him  as  to  stand  in  need  of  neither 
priest  nor  mediator.  It  may  be  a  difficult  task,  but  as 
Professor  Simon  N.  Patten  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania has  said :  "When  an  'is'  can  be  put  in  con- 
trast with  a  'might  be/  the  'ought  to  be'  looms  up  with  suf- 
ficient clearness  to  make  the  change.  To  localize 
evils  always  generates  enough  will  power  to  remove 
them."  And  what  is  true  in  the  economic  world  is  true 
also  in  the  field  of  Religion — for  when  we  have  localized 
the  evil,  sufficient  energy  may  be  created  to  remove  it,  suffi- 
cient force  may  then  be  generated  for  the  people  to  go 
through  the  agony — for  agony  it  is — of  breaking  with  the 
traditions  of  their  fathers,  for  people  to  evince  that  cour- 
age of  conviction  and  that  honesty  of  belief  that  would 
make  of  them,  and  "they" — are  you  and  I,  that  would 
make  of  us  veritable  crusaders,  battling  against  the  Miper- 
stitions  and  bigotries,  against  the  antiquities  and  infidelities 
wrhich  have  had  possession  of  the  Holy  Land  of  our  souls, 
of  the  spiritual  Jerusalem  of  mankind — of  Faith,  of  Re- 
ligion. 

No  better  case  in  point — one  that  could  better  demon- 
strate what  unsocial  religion  is,  no  better  example  of  the 
kind  of  religion  that  is  responsible  for  the  moral  weakness 
of  the  church  and  for  the  consequent  disregard  in  which 
religion  is  held — no  more  pronounced  type  of  the  sort  of 
church,  the  future  church  must  not  be — is  the  instance  of 
the  church  in  one  of  Philadelphia's  suburbs  whose  pastor 
caused  to  have  a  sign  placed  on  the  grounds  of  the  church 


24 

proclaiming  that  "Christ  Jesus  saves  sinners  without  money 
or  good  work,  only  by  His  precious  blood."  When  another 
Christian  protested  against  the  sign  on  the  score  of  "ethical 
offense"  and  because  it  represented,  as  he  put  it,  "a  false 
and  repellent  philosophy,"  what  was  the  pastor's  answer? 
I  quote  it  because  I  consider  it  significant.  "Whoever  this 
silly  person  is,"  referring  to  his  fellow-Christian  who  op- 
posed this  Christian  advertisement,  "he  is  evidently  against 
both  the  Bible  and  God.  ...  I  am  responsible  only  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  what  I  teach,  and  I  teach 
only  what  is  plainly  set  forth  in  His  scriptures."  It  is  not 
my  intention  to  interfere  in  what  is  after  all  a  family  affair, 
nor,  I  assure  you,  is  there  any  personal  element  involved  in 
what  I  am  about  to  say.  But  in  so  far  as  the  attitude  of  the 
pastor  in  question  is  characteristic  of  the  church  that  has 
failed  to  realize  that  man  is  progressing  despite  its  efforts 
to  the  contrary,  the  church  that  has  closed  its  eyes  10  the 
growth  and  advance  of  the  times  and  which  persists  in  its 
efforts  to  remain  upon  the  lifeless  platform  of  the  long  ago, 
instead  of  being  in  the  vanguard  of  civilization,  I  deem 
it  worthy  of  present  consideration.  What  is  this 
charge  of  someone  being  "against  both  the  Bible  and 
God"  who  protests  in  the  name  of  Religion  against  the 
doctrine  of  individual  salvation  "without  money  or  good 
works" — what  is  it  but  a  form  of  idolatry,  of  rank  paganism 
and  heathenism  ?  What  sort  of  religious  (?)  leadership  is  it 
that  presumes  to  speak  in  the  name  of  Religion  while  it 
fails  to  recognize  the  manifestation  of  divinity  in  man, 
while  it  fails  to  recognize  the  continuous  revelation  of  God 
unto  man,  that  would  arrest  reason  and  throttle  uplifting, 
soul-captivating  faith?  What  sort  of  a  theology  is  it  and 


25 

what  is  the  ethical  and  religious  measure  of  the  theologians 
who — every  time  "a  change  is  urged  in  the  statement  ot 
dogma  to  suit  the  spirit  and  need  of  the  age    .    .    .    are  up 
in  arms,  and  wish  to  know  whether  the  Bible  can  change"  ? 
"It  is  one  thing,"  says  Doctor  Henry  Dwight  Chapin,  "to 
state  that  Scripture  contains  the  substance  of  divine  truth; 
it  is  quite  another  to  insist  that  the  mediaeval  interpretation 
must  stand  for  all  time."*  Think  of  it!   To  be  "saved"  one 
need  not  right  the  wrong  done,  one  need  not  retrace  the  path 
of  guilt,  one  need  not  make  reparation,  one  need  not  atone 
— for  atonement  had  been  made  nineteen  hundred  years  ago 
by  one  who  died  upon  the  Roman  cross,  for  the  crimes,  for 
the  sins,  for  the  iniquities  of  today!   Believe  this — and  you 
are  accounted  Religious  by  a  church;  deny  this — and  you 
are  execrated  in  the  name  of  a  Bible  worship  that  is  repulsive 
in  its  extravagance,  and  in  the  name  of  that  God — faith  in 
whom  implies  and  demands  as   evidence  a   love   of   one's 
neighbor  and  the  just  deed,  the  merciful  act,  and  the  humble 
atitude?    Is  it  any  wonder  that  men  of  the  stamp  of  the  late 
Carleton  H.  Parker,  men  whose  souls  are  ablaze  with  di- 
vinity, whose  lives  are  burning  bushes  of  the  divine  reveal- 
ing itself  in  man,  that  men  of  that  calibre  are  estranged 
from  the  religious  organization?     As  Parker  has  well  put 
it  in  speaking  of  his  own  religiosity  during  his  boyhood : 

"I  did  things  for  a  system  of  ethics,  not  because 
of  a  fine  rush  of  social  brotherly  intuition.  My  im- 
agination was  ever  concerned  with  me  and  my  pros- 
pects, my  salvation.  [This  type  of  religion]  is  a  self- 
captivating  thing,  it  divorces  man  from  the  plain  and 
bitter  realities  of  life,  it  brings  an  anti-social  emanci- 

*"Vital  Questions,"  p.  174. 


26 

pation  to  him.  .  .  .  We  look  on  high  in  ecstasy, 
and  fail  to  be  on  flame  because  of  the  suffering  of 
those  whose  wounds  are  bare  to  our  eyes  on  the 
street.  .  .  .  I  fear  your  God,  because  I  think  he 
is  a  product  of  the  unreal  and  unhelpful  .  .  .  that 
He  fills  the  vision  and  leaves  no  room  for  the  simple 
and  patient  deeds  of  brotherhood,  a  heavenly  contem- 
plation taking  the  place  of  earthly  deeds."  * 

No,  the  Religion  of  the  new  day  will  have  to  reajize 
that  it  cannot  influence,  neither  can  it  lead  and  guide  the 
social  entity  of  the  twentieth  century  by  means  of  a  creed 
reflecting  the  conceptions  of  Roman  and  mediaeval  days, 
with  beliefs  mirroring  the  social  and  ethical  standards  of 
those  days.  No!  The  Religion  of  man  socialized  will  have 
to  speak  of  God  not  in  terms  of  a  fierce  tribal  chief,  nor  in 
terms  of  a  stern  ruler,  neither  in  terms  of  Supreme  Egotism 
and  Vanity,  nor  in  obsolete  and  archaic  language.  The 
God  of  Socialized  Religion  must  lie  what  the  ancient 
apostles  of  Socialized  Religion — the  Prophets  of  Israel — 
proclaimed  Him  of  old  to  be — the  Lord  who  exercises 
mercy,  justice  and  righteousness  in  the  earth. 

Religion  Socialized  will  have  to  cease  troubling  itself 
with  sundry  attempts  at  the  palliation  of  misery  here  an4 
there,  cease  easing  its  conscience  with  the  morsel  of  good  it 
may  have  done  in  a  limited  sphere.  It  will  have  to  become 
the  inspiration  of  men  urging  them  to  remove  not  the  fruit 
of  the  evil  which  is  above  ^^  surface,  but  to  strike  at  the 
roots  of  evil,  beneath  the  surface.  Not  charities  shall  be 
the  aim  of  the  church,  but  an  inculcation  of  that  spirit  of 

*Parker,  C.  H. — "An  American  Idyll,"  pp.  129-130. 


27 

charity  of  which  Abraham  Lincoln  spoke.  It  should  become 
the  task  of  Religion  to  focus  man's  attention  not  upon 
self,  but  upon  those  about  him;  to  give  man  that  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  happiness  and  moral  purity  and  health 
of  his  fellow  man  which  will  guide  his  own  life  in  the  path 
of  "personal  regeneration."  Religion  Socialized  will  at- 
tempt through  the  church  and  through  its  selected  leaders  to 
imbue  mankind  with  a  precious  sense  of  brotherhood  which, 
coming  with  the  authority  of  Religion  and  consecrated  by 
the  actual  brotherliness  of  the  exponents  of  the  doctrine, 
will  grip  and  hold  the  conscience  of  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 

Religion  Socialized  must  be  a  "religion  of  amity"  not 
a  "religion  of  enmity" — it  must  emphasize  less  the  blissful 
state  after  death  and  urge  ever  more  and  more  intelligently 
the  right  life  and  the  right  to  life  of  every  being  bearing 
the  stamp  of  the  Creator ! 

Religion  Socialized  will  train  men  and  women  to  com- 
bine religion  with  life,  the  sacred  with  the  secular,  the  holy 
with  what  is  non-holy.  Religion  must  be  one  with  Life, 
and  it  must  not  introduce  any  distinction  between  sacred 
and  secular  in  life.  It  must  maintain  and  prescribe  the 
unity  in  life  of  sacred  and  secular,  and  must  ever  insist  that 
the  vision  which  religion  holds  of  the  brighter  future  must 
color  life  in  its  entirety  and  lead  men  to  its  realization. 

Religion  Socialized  will — in  brief — give  men,  what  it 
now  fails  to  give — a  social  attitude,  a  social  conscience,  and 
will  imbue  its  adherents  with  a  social  sweep  and  a  conscious- 
ness of  social  obligation. 

Our  scriptural  lesson  of  this  morning  is  significant  in 
this  connection.  The  prophet  of  old  speaking  to  a  genera- 
tion not  unlike  our  own,  proclaims  with  all  the  rugged  vigor 


28 

of  his  nature :  "Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  the  house  of  Israel, 
— Seek  Me  if  you  would  live,"  as  he  emphasizes  merci- 
lessly that  not  by  resorting  to  the  sanctuaries  can  they 
learn  to  seek  God  and  learn  to  live,  but  by  living  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Ideal,  by  living  up  to  the  highest  teachings  and 
by  striving  to  apply  in  their  daily  living,  the  teachings  to 
which  they  give  lip-loyalty,  by  realizing  their  social  responsi- 
bility and  by  social  faithfulness,  will  they  learn  to  seek  God 
and  live.  "Let  justice  well  up  as  waters,  and  righteousness 
as  a  mighty  stream."  By  establishing  justice  and  by  per- 
petuating righteousness, — in  this  wise  alone  could  they  seek 
God  and  live. 

This  message  applies  with  equal  force  to  us,  perhaps 
with  even  greater  force,  to  our  times.  We — perhaps  even 
more  than  Amos's  and  Jeremiah's  contemporaries  have  be- 
come so  accustomed  to,  and  have  been  inured  in,  mere 
phraseology,  that  we  have  made  the  vocabulary  of 
religion  our  own,  and  lost  the  spirit,  and  we, — like  those  of 
twenty-eight  centuries  ago,  have  lost  the  soul,  the  meaning, 
the  concept,  of  which  words  and  language  are  but  the  sym- 
bols. This  is  what  our  fathers  meant  when  they  spoke  of 
the  "echad  ba'peh  ve'echad  balev"  individual,  he  whose  heart 
betrays  his  lips — and  as  an  example  of  contemptible  hy- 
pocrisy, I  think,  this  form  of  duplicity  stands  alone  among 
human  hypocrisies! 

Dir'shu  eth  Adonai — Seek  God!  Think  ye  that  ye  can 
find  God  in  the  synagogue  or  in  the  church,  if  He  be  not 
found  in  the  homes?  Think  ye  that  ye  can  find  God  in  the 
four  ells  of  a  richly  ornamented  edifice  when  He  be  not 
found  in  the  business  office  or  at  the  bar  of  justice?  Seek 
God — in  your  hearts,  in  your  souls,  in  your  daily  lives,  in 


29 

your  fellowships !  Realize  your  God  in  your  daily  con- 
tacts— and  then  come  to  the  church  or  synagogue!  Then 
will  you  demand  of  your  synagogue  or  of  your  church  to 
be  not  a  follower  but  a  leader.  Then  will  you  make  of  the 
church  a  powerful  social  agent,  meaningful  and  vital.  Then, 
with  you  to  back  it,  with  you  practicing,  with  you  apply- 
ing its  teachings  will  the  church  cease  being  a  stagnant  pool 
of  unsocial  and  anti-social  dogmas  and  concepts,  but  will 
become  a  well  of  living,  sparkling  waters,  a  guide  and  an 
inspiration.  Then  will  the  church  assume  its  function  of 
teaching  by  example ;  then  will  there  come  about  the  sacred 
union  of  life  with  faith  and  of  faith  with  life;  then  will  the 
church  cease  being  merely  a  one-day-a-week  institution  but 
a  communal  centre,  not  only  a  rostrum  whence  theory  is 
propounded,  however  eloquently,  but  also  a  great  social  lab- 
oratory; then  will  it  include  in  its  program  of  work  not 
only  Tor  ah  and  Abhodah, — not  only  instruction  and  wor- 
ship, but  also  Gemilluth  Chasodim — also  social  service! 

Herein,  to  my  mind,  lies  the  hope  of  the  church  to 
become  the  real,  vital  centre  of  life.  Along  such  lines 
may  the  church  be  resuscitated.  Else,  it  will  disappear. 
Otherwise — it  is  a  superstition,  and  should  disappear. 

Let  the  dry  bones  lying  white  and  bare  in  the  valley 
be  clothed  with  sinews,  arteries  and  flesh.  Then  let  the 
quickening  breath  of  consecrated  life  come  upon  them,  thus 
resurrecting  them  into  vigorous  life!  Thus  will  the  re- 
ligious organization  become  deservedly  and  truly  central  in 
our  life.  Thus,  too,  shall  the  voice  of  the  teacher  become 
not  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  but  the  voice 
of  a  prophet  proclaiming  God's  great  truths  to  a  living  peo- 
ple, in  a  true  sanctuary  of  God  and  man !  Amen. 


UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  F, 


